"We Could Not Exist in Paradise"

"We could not exist in paradise. Our minds would unravel and we would wither and dull to nothing." Carl Safina, Eye of the Albatross.

Why do we write New Year's Resolutions?

Why do we strive?

Why do we taken on seemingly impossible tasks?

Safina puts it beautifully: "Without challenges to our very existence, we could never have come to be."

Safina is America's preeminent conservationist, a seeker, a scientist, a much-lauded writer of breathtaking books. For my part, his writing lifts my heart and reminds me of why I love to do adventure travel. Explore the world's isolated and gorgeous places. Push my limits. Fail, fail and fail again, and then find my feet.

When Safina writes about Nature, he speaks directly to our very souls. To what is wild in all of us, and what desperately seeks to reconnect with that wildness. That striving.

When I came across these words in Albatross, they reminded me of how often I see Facebook memes begging God (or whomever) to remove our troubles, make life easy, soothe our lives. Let me just sit on a cloud of nothingness and never have a worry in the world again. Play a harp for all eternity.

Really?

No wonder Mark Twain made so much fun of the idea of heaven. Humans thrive on difficulty. We only know ourselves through challenge.

Whether that challenge is to start a new business, create a solution for ocean pollution, or find a way to dump that extra ten pounds of Christmas cookie dough (okay so that one's mine), it's an essential part of being human. We need to tackle something larger than ourselves. That is how we define ourselves in the world. We discover what we're made of by erasing our impossible.

Serena Williams would never be Serena Williams without the body-shaming, the prejudice, the ugliness thrown in her gorgeous face. She rises because of those things. She is a mighty warrior, likely the single greatest athlete of our time. The perfect example of what it looks like to overcome.

Living things need something to push off of, writes Safina.

Nature is a never -ending battle, whether to escape predators, find food or earn the right to a mate. Mammal, fish, bird, tree, or protozoa, life is always struggling to make a way.

So many of us humans avoid struggle. It seems that the American Dream has become the couch+Netflicks+Domino's Pizza+America's Got Talent. Is it any wonder we're more and more unhappy by the minute?

Comfort and ease aren't paradise for one simple reason: we will never rise out of mediocrity.

Nobody watches a movie about a guy who sits by the pool all day and eats Doritos.

Nobody wants to read a story about a rich chick who watches game shows, eats expensive lunches and goes shopping at the world's most expensive boutiques. (Although via social media that is precisely what we report about ourselves as though it's the most riveting story in the world. "I'm eating sushi right now." Sorry. News flash: We don't care.)

We read about Cheryl Strayed in Wild. Eric Wiehenmayer, the blind man who summitted Everest. The quadruple amputee who made his way inch by agonizing inch to the top of some of the world's highest peaks. The 300 -lb woman who climbed Kilimanjaro three times.

We are all of us undefined until we are truly tested. Pushed. Broken. Humbled. When we get back up and shout at the lowering sky, "BRING IT ON!!!" we begin to touch our mettle.

"Each of us needs challenges to give us the right shape," writes Safina.

Want a challenge? How about Aron Ralston, who cut off his arm when a boulder trapped him in a canyon. Ralston turned that horrible experience into a six-figure speaking career. Rudy Ruettiger, who took seven seconds on the field at Notre Dame in the mid-1970s and turned that into the best sports movie of all time.

We have a plethora of gadgets and gizmos designed to make life blissful. Richer doesn't make for joy. Having doesn't translate to satisfaction. Satisfaction is earned. Contentment is gained. Neither comes easily. Money doesn't give you gravitas. Your own unique difficulties offer you the chance to capture your courage.

The more we have, the less we do, the more miserable we are. Too much ease is a disease. We have fallen to 19th in the world's happiness rankings. Clearly having a lot of stuff, and seeking ease don't add up to a lot of joy. Watching others excel at sports or overcome hardship does nothing for our own lives unless we take on something similar.

The soul needs a tough task. It hungers for mountains to climb.

My mother accused me of having a death wish when I first started skydiving many years ago.

Ask anyone who does extreme sports like I do, and we will all tell you just the opposite is true. Not only do most of us train diligently to ensure our safety, but the sports, and their very difficulty, make us feel more alive than just about anything else. In the middle of being intensely focused in the moment, we are vividly, unbelievably alive. Those exquisite experiences, including seeing a bear a few feet away, or standing on top of Kilimanjaro to watch the sun rise over the clouds at nearly 20,000 feet, make you grateful beyond words.

We are already in Paradise. The challenges we have are the gifts that make us who we will become. Shirking them or avoiding life's demands robs the world of your gifts.

As you begin this New Year, what challenges have you set that will give you a powerful sense of achievement? What will you do that will make you feel incredibly alive?

To be alive is to be at risk, and to risk is to know what it is to be truly alive.

What are you willing to risk to discover who you really can become?

For a list of books by Carl Safina, please go to https://www.amazon.com/Carl-Safina/e/B000APJCLI

or visit carlsafina.org. Your book purchases directly from Safina support conservation work worldwide.